This NOAA satellite image taken Nov. 12, 2014, at 1:00pm EST shows a very large storm system over an Alaska bay moving eastward with a warm front into the Pacific Northwest. (AP Photo/Weather Underground)

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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which oversees the National Weather Service, announced in October that it was conducting "unscheduled maintenance" on its network. Turns out the reason was likely a security breach by hackers in China, reports the Washington Post. NOAA hasn't specified whether any classified data was accessed, or in fact what (if any) information was obtained or if malware was installed, but cybersecurity teams blocked off data key to shipping, aviation, disaster planning, etc., resulting in an outage that ultimately skewed the accuracy of the National Weather Service's forecasts.

The September attack hit a Web server that connects to many NOAA computers, someone close to the incident says. The security breach comes on the heels of a July report finding weaknesses in NOAA's security that cyberattackers could exploit, reports NBC News. In fact, the weaknesses "could provide an attacker with access to ... critical assets," the report found. What's more, officials say NOAA did not notify the proper authorities of the attack, though NOAA spokesman Scott Smullen has acknowledged the hacks and said "incident response began immediately." (Meanwhile, Russians are being fingered for a hack of unclassified networks in the White House.)

Don't get too excited. Our NSA is doing the same in China and all over the world.

OrneryPup

Nov 14, 2014 2:31 AM CST

Now I'm not bashing Nixon here, but I saw a huge mistake when Nixon awakened the sleeping giant that is China. They tasted some capitalism and liked it. Technology is pretty tasty as well. Granted, they would have woke up sooner or later, but later would have been better than sooner.

OrneryPup

Nov 14, 2014 2:23 AM CST

Due to the very nature of things, this sort of thing will get a lot worse before it gets better. It's the "Wild West" out there with all kinds of bad guys lurking in the net. My suggestion is to panic now and get it overwith, and or avoid the mass panic later.